Hidden In Time
by Burnout'83
Summary: Very AU. Dark, gritty, Glaswegian. Sarah Reynolds is a professor of criminolgy at Glasgow University. She's rediscovered Sarah Connor. After a night out  she finds herself on a very bad trip and walking home with a fellow Professor from the university.


_OK guys if you're expecting comedy, this isn't. I'm sorry . Its dark and gritty and Glaswegian . I had a debate with a friend online about how you could turn dark 'matter' inside out and find some grains of humanity in it. I'm not sure if this is too AU for most you , but imagine if all the characters in TSCC exist and they could move around the time-line, hiding themselves in time, changing the future as if it were complex game of chess. What would Weaver do to change it all? What moment in time would she choose to intervene?_

_Sarah Reynolds is a Professor of criminology at Glasgow Faculty Of Social Science . She's discovered a fascinating new case study in America from the mid 1990's. She was a homegrown terrorist , Sarah Connor. A feminist pin- up and enough material for a lifetime's study .Why wasn't there more information about such a high profile case?_

_Please drop a review in because I do want to know if this style works and if you've enjoyed reading, or not, as the case might be. _

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><p>November 2012<p>

The cold night air hit Sarah Renoylds like a rabbit punch in the throat. She staggered from the club, down the steps and out into the icy street .

It was way past midnight and Glasgow city centre was heavin' with drunks and clubbers . Sarah glanced around in panic .The bright lights from shops fronts and passing taxis reeled through her head. She gripped hold of the iron railings at the bottom of the steps to the club and forced herself to breathe regularly.

Catherine Weaver swiftly followed Sarah outside and steadied her by the arm. "What's the matter?" Catherine asked.

"I think someone spiked my drink , feels like I'm going to puke ," Sarah yelled" Bastard!" and glared back at the club .

Catherine put her arm around her shoulder , "hey shush now, stop your shouting ,come on , I'll call a cab and get you home."

Sarah let go of the railings and decided she wasn't going to fall over. "No , I need the air . I'm going to be OK , everything's feels feels a bit weird , I'll walk back ."

"Well looks like I'll be walking back with you then doesn't it ?" Replied Catherine

"I'm sorry , look , if you want to go back in there ..."

"Why would I want to do that?" Catherine frowned.

"That guy you were getting all pally with- you know. Sarah swallowed and tried to appear as normal as possible. " Cath, I can find my own way back , I'll be Ok in few minutes, it's time for me to go anyway."

"I'm not going anywhere without you . And, " that guy". You mean "Mike" , the interior designer . Actually ,' Mike's' married , he's got kids and Mike's not his real name . Interior design? Nacht, he runs a one man decorating business from a lock up down in The New Gorbels . I'm not leaving my best friend on the streets of Glasgow at one fifteen in he morning ."

Sarah shook her head . Her heart was pounding and her teeth were starting to chatter , but she tried to keep it together. She was going to ride out whatever it was in her system and get home, then go to sleep . "How do you do that Catherine?" She asked trying to keep her voice on an level.

"What ?"

"Work guy's out ? you're always, em, unerringly correct "

"It's just a nack, that sonofabitch was easy, he had it written all over his face." "This way , Catherine turned Sarah away from the direction she had intended and led her by the arm negotiating her around a pile of dirty brown snow ." Come on, we're going back to my place, you know it's nearer. We can do this girl. Hey, but you got to promise me , no yellin' and no waking up Savannah or my lodgers OK?"

Catherine and Sarah stepped past the taxi rank. Scantly dressed clubbers going home were wearing, nothing but slips of dresses , thin jeans and tee shirts . Womens arms dimpled with cold and were turning blue . Most looked they'd dragged out of freezing river and had been dumped confused on the pavement and had just stood up wondering where they were. Couples clung to each other for warmth and stability. One pair tottered and swayed, lost their balance and slowly and ungracefully they fell, the woman landing on on top of the guy with the guy landing on his backside in the road . With great disdain Sarah watched them trying to stand up. "Forget them," she said.

"Who," asked Catherine.

"Men."

"Now why should I forget men?

"Because they're all tossers."

"Sarah , I'm forty one, so any tosser, and I'll grant you a tosser above a certain standard ,is better none at all ."

" Yeah, whatever. Jeez! I've just remembered," said Sarah running her hand through her hair," One of my PhD students - I've got to go in and give him a tutorial tomorrow afternoon , "Aw, shit ! I'm never going get to sleep tonight ."

"Don't worry, there's half bottle of Tequila back at my place , you'll go out like light. Happy birthday by the way, Sarah."

"Yeah happy birthday me ." Sarah flashed a smile , bitter and laced with irony .

"Hey " Catherine squeezed her arm, "let's cut through the park."

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><p>"So what's it like?" Asked Catherine<p>

"You know I hate drugs, but for the record , there 's colours, like the Borealis dancing over the treetops . God I feel so hot, ." Sarah's blew steaming breath out of her mouth into the freezing air. "Cath ,talk to me about something normal please, this is scary."

"OK , hows the research going . What's the name of that woman you dug up last week, again, you know the one you all excited about?"

"You weren't listening when I told you Cath, she's Sarah Connor."

"So what's so special about her ?"

"It's weird , amazing, Sarah was high profile in the 90's, so last week the FBI records go public, but there's only fragments, it's not like the other case studies, there's no complete record, no images no photographs , and what there is on the internet, it's so hard to find. Stuff's definitely been edited, sites have gone 404 . It's a like trail that's been covered ."

"So what was her thing?"

"She blew computer labs up."

"She did what! Why would she do that?"

"I don't know, that's the mystery, her motive's never determined, at least not recorded . Oh and Cath ,it's so,tragic."

"Huh?"

"Sarah had a son, he was about ten eleven years old. She's locked up in a psychiatric prison. Get this, her son and some guy ,I think is her boyfriend break her out ,the next day the three of them drive to Miles Dyson's house, Dyson is the director of a computer company, they kidnap Dyson take him to his factory , there's a one hell of a fire-fight with the LAPD , Sarah wires the building and then she blows herself, her kid, her boyfriend and Dyson up.- Imagine being ten years old and the last thing you witness is you mum doing that." Sarah put her hand to to her forehead, she was sweating.

"Sarah, you wouldn't be getting too close would you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Academic researchers, case/subject- researcher: there's sometimes porous boundaries, you know?"

"Hey I'm keeping my objectivity here ."

"And?"

"None of it adds up, you know what?"

Catherine stopped walking and looked into her friend's eyes. "What?"

"Cath,I think Sarah Connor is still alive ."

"You do? What was her son's name,"

"Acht , the narrative's got to you now, hasn't it?"

"No , I do maths , I'm interested in numbers not people . You asked me to talk normal to you whilst we walked home."

Sarah grinned, Cath was a hard as nails bitch to some people , but she only played tough with her. She'd known Cath eight years since the first day she moved to Glasgow to take up her lectureship . At the university both women had made professor in their respective disciplines. "Her son? He was called John, John Connor , you know what? if I'd had kids, a boy, I always said I'd have called him John. Kinda spooky, right ?"

"No , it's not spooky, just a staistically common name, don't you think?" replied Catherine , scanning across the playing field. She frowned as if trying to make out something on the edge of her vision.

"Say, Sarah," Catherine continued as if keeping up the pretense of a keeping Sarah answering normal questions until she got home: a quiz night for the unintentionally high , "What did you teach back in America Sarah?"

"Huh, Criminal Sociology."

"And which university did you teach at ?'

"Oh er, em, ..." It came on again like a wave. Sarah ran her hand over her forehead, She was sweating . There were beads of mercurial silver on her fingertips. The droplets moved like tiny insects down her fingers and aggregated themselves into a ball the size of a piece of chewing gum in her palm . "Cath what the hell is this?" Sarah stared wild-eyed panic at her open hand.

"Ok, here we go again. You really are 'going' aren't you? Come here, gimme that, it's mine ," Catherine quickly picked it up and Sarah saw the ball reform into Catherine's fingers. "Okay Sarah nobody spiked your drink and I need you to stay very calm ."

Sarah Jaw dropped she couldn't move "What ? What the fuck just happened!"

"It's a neural inhibitor , one-nanometer strings of polymetic alloy find tiny holes in your skull , they go in there and interface with you brain. That's all, nothing to stress about. Hey , you've got part of my body here Sarah ,on indefinite loan, but don't mention it."

"This is is crazy Cath, stop this , I'm scared."

"You're not on Ecstasy girl , this is real. You'll not remember it , tomorrow ," she sighed "tomorrow you'll be Sarah Reyonlds again, thank god."

Sarah's face twisted , her features hardened and her soft brogue was replaced by a harsh American voice . She grabbed Catherine's arm and yelled at her . " Stop it! This is freaking me the hell out."

"And hello again old friend to you too. You know this is like taking a pet demon for a walk. I know why I got this job now. " Sarah noticed Cath's attention was fixed on something to her left . Sarah's eyes followed Cath's stare. In the glare of halogen lights from the Sports Centre she could see two men cutting across the park on the path at near edge of the playing field . They'd got their hands in their pockets ,heads down walking stiff -legged and fast - Junkies out robbing kids mobile phones on the scent of scoring a fix.

"Hey you's" Catherine shouted to them , "I said you's : sonny boy and yer mate, I haven't got all night , run to me now .."

They stopped in mid stride and looked around like vermin like snifing the air until they spotted Catherine "Ye talking ta me ya ginger slag? We was goin' home but well we might just have us wee bitta fun wi yah instead ," the large one of the two houted back at Catherine . They changed direction and began walking rapidly towards her.

"Weaver stop this now ."

"No" she siad simply and frimly.

It was too late . The two junkies were in Catherine's face, ike rats , unshaven , lank haired, shitted up clothing from sleeping rough . The larger one of the two smiled , trying to frighten Catherine keeping his mouth deliberately open, reaveling his broken, sharp dirty front teeth. The smaller one pulled a blade- , serrated combat knives had become currency amongst the heroin community .

"Get the hell outta here!" Shouted Sarah.

The two junkies laughed her , thinking this was hysterical ."Aw look yees here, an American bitch as well , bonus for us then eh ." The smaller one stared at her with obvious anticipation.

Sarah saw Weaver's draw her right arm back and her deliberate , controlled punch. There was a sickening slap and a crack, and the big guy went down on the grass clutching a fractured jaw. The smaller one didn't have any chance to react before her knuckles smashed the bridge of his nose. He fell backwards from the force of the punch . Weaver picked the combat knife up and waved it in front of their faces . "Now that hurt didn't it, so, I'm gonna tell you's what you gonna do next : I'm gonna carve you into wee chunks o' dog-meat and dump you in the River Clyde , do you ken?"

"Stop it ." Shouted Sarah, "just fucking stop now."

Weaver turned her face and critically examined Sarah "Why ?"

"You can't just kill like that ." She answered slowly and painfully .

"Ah now were getting to the nub of it, "you can't just kill like that" . Aye and I agree with you ."

Weaver took a long dispassionate look at the two men writhing on the floor. "Get outta my face and either of you whisper about me to anyone ever, I'll find you's and I'll keep my promise." She said crouching again holding the blade tip to the big guy's chin "Now both of you go do something useful with your lives. GET UP AND RUN! "

The two men scrambled to their feet holding their broken faces and ran towards the park gates. Weaver turned to face Sarah and threw the combat knife . It went blade-first into the grass ,handle sticking up , a millimetre from the edge of Sarah's right shoe.

"So you no' gonna call me a bitch or something this time , like you usually do Sarah?"

Sarah reached down never taking her eyes off Weaver pulled out the blade and held it in front of her. There seemed to be like a red mist closing around her.

"So what's it gonna be Sarah Connor?"

Sarah snapped and lunged at Weaver. "You took my Son."

Weaver easily sidestepped the blade and came around behind her . "Aye and if hadn't chosen to , we'd of all have been dead. Every machine, man woman and child on this planet ,dead. Did you never stop to think about that?"

Sarah span and lunged again . Slashing air , the blur of Weaver's form shifted to her left.

"And now you trying to kill me , and I gotta an nine year old daughter , and you're my best friend , do you understand now why I canna let you go wandering 'round without a piece of me inside your skull . For Chrisakes woman , The Alliance was going to override John and have put you down. You're too damn dangerous to have on this time line. Now the Alliance big chiefs said if you're refusing to kill Sarah Connor , go back pull her out of Dysons's factory, get her wiped and find her a job waitressing somewhere around 2005 . Me? I said no way , I said Sarah will be under-stimulated and that will make her unhappy , she needs an academic challenge and she deserves a good life after all she's been through, and this is all the thanks I get for being your damn friend , probation officer and keepin' you off the psyche wards for the last eight years?"

"I want to see John!" Sarah yelled.

" Well he doesn't wan' to see you, not like this , and ma daughter doesn't want to see ya like this either. You can't control the Metal- hate can you,? It's not your fault, but understand why we have to do this right, and tomorrow you can find something else to research other than yerself. Jeez want to know why I when your implant needs reconfiguring ? Well I'll bloody well tell you- every six months or so regular as clockwork you start looking Sarah Connor up on the internet again! ".

Sarah stepped made another slash for Catherine's optics., Catherine pulled her head back and this time she grabbed Sarah's arm and twisted her wrist dropped and pushed her down into a kneeling position, held her there and crouched in front of her face. "You- you can see the world and live a life through the eyes of Sarah Reynolds, now tell me that's not better than being dead, tell me that's not better than this planet being a burnt radioactive cinder. That's what your anger would have made it, you hate my kind and there's nothing I can do apart from this to help you. Do you ever wonder why Skynet expended so much energy tracking you down?"

Catherine reached out her arms and gripped her harder . Sarah dropped the knife and felt Weaver wrapped herself around her. Her strength was phenomenal Sarah struggled and raged but she was she was immobilized so she couldn't hurt herself. " That's it all reconfigured . Hey " Weaver said stroking her fingers through Sarah's hair , "I've got a surprise for you when you wake up tomorrow morning. Come on let 's get you back." Weaver glanced around, picked up Sarah's unconscious body ,slung her on her shoulder and walked her back to her house across the empty park. Only a fox pausing in the bushes by the walls to houses at the edge of the park witnessed her doing this.

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><p>There was the smell of cooking coming from Cath's kitchen . Sarah Reynolds gripped the banister rail as she descended the stairs . She'd been trying to piece together the night before. She and Cath had been talking to these two guys in the club. Then she'd been off her head on Ecstasy - one of the guys must have spiked her drink. Cath had walked her back here across the park. Beyond that it was all a hazy mess Sarah shuddered at the thought of it . Sarah hated drugs, maybe she'd take a run later clear her system before going into her tutorial, and if she ever saw those two guy's again she'd give them a good piece of her mind. They might have thought it was something she'd appreciate, but it was damn violation of her body.<p>

When she opened the kitchen door two young people were at the big range cooking up breakfast together with their backs to her.

"Where's Cath?" Sarah asked.

"Hi you must be Sarah" , replied the petite brown haired girl as she turned around and Sarah a big smile. She had the most deep inquisitive brown eyes. "Cath's taken Savannah into town to get her some new shoes for school, it's school holidays.I'm Cameron , and this is my boyfriend John. We're lodging here."

John turned around with a frying spatula in his hand "Do you want some breakfast Sarah? We could stretch this if you like." He was green eyed and gentle, and those eyes shone with extended trust and intelligence. Sarah had odd feeling of having met him before, but she sometimes got that, like an instinct when her intellect met another. She guessed they were students. "So what do you do?" she asked.

"I'm studying Maths," said Cameron.

"Bio Engineering." said John ."We're both doing our Masters , it's kind a hectic at the moment, Cath's real kind she's offered to put us up for the year, she doesn't charge much."

"What would you like to eat Sarah? we got bacon, eggs, toast."

"Hey that looks good." said Sarah," you know what this is a treat for me, I'm a totally lousy cook."

"Yeah I heard that." said Cameron grinning,... "Savannah mentioned it."

"John ," said Sarah, "have I seen you around the Social Science faculty sometime, you look familiar ?

"Maybe said John, I walk past there sometimes . Would you like coffee Sarah?" That's when she noticed a third place set at the table. They seemed like nice kids, Professor Reynolds thought to herself, really nice, decent kids.


End file.
